New Dune 3 Teaser Doubles Down On One Key Character Nobody Is Talking About
Edric is running this scheme.
Considering Dune: Part Three is the supposed final part of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune film series, there’s a shocking number of new characters who all help propel the story forward. While Florence Pugh’s Irulan had a relatively small role in Dune: Part Two, she will be center stage in Part Three; similarly, Alia Atreides (Anya Taylor-Joy) was only glimpsed for literal seconds in a flash-forward in Part Two, and is also, in theory, a power player this time around. You might think Jason Momoa’s return as Duncan Idaho is the same old Duncan from the first movie, but book purists know that, technically, this is a new character, a ghola duplicate named “Hayt.” Finally, you’ve got Robert Pattinson as Scytale, a shapeshifting face dancer who is part of a huge conspiracy to bring Paul down.
But, in all of that, there’s one totally crucial character that fans aren’t really talking about that much. And, in the latest Dune 3 teaser trailer, that character finally, finally speaks.
Dune 3 teaser trailer features talking Edric
As tickets for Dune: Part Three hit Fandango, a new teaser was launched, giving us even more new footage than before. Despite the short length of this teaser, there’s even more story teased than in some previous footage — if you know what to look for.
Right at the start of the new teaser, Irulan asks a sarcophagus-like figure, “Tell me what lies ahead.” The figure replies, “The end.”
This voice belongs to Edric, the Guild Navigator who is one of the key conspirators against Paul and the Atreides family more broadly. The fact that we’re seeing him in this scene means we’re getting a glimpse of one of the many meetings Edric has with his fellow conspirators, which, in the novel Dune Messiah, includes Princess Irulan (Paul’s legal wife), Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam of the Bene Gesserit, the Bene Tleilax, including Bijaz and Scytale, and, the represnative for the Spacing Guild, Edric.
Who is Edric? What is Edric? Why is Edric?
Edric joins his fellow conspirators in Dune 3.
If you’re still in the dark about the storyline of Dune 3, the screenplay will be based largely on Dune Messiah, the second Dune novel by Frank Herbert. While the first Dune book mentioned the existence of the Guild Navigators — the mutated humans who actually use the spice to safely chart courses through space — Edric is truly the first Guild Navigator that we meet in the saga.
The Villeneuve Dune films have largely avoided depicting the Spacing Guild directly, and even the process used by the Guild Navigators — and hence, the entire importance of Spice at all — is largely implied in the existing two films.
So, from a plot point of view, Edric has to be in Dune 3, because in Messiah, he’s part of the plot to destroy Paul. But, from a Dune-head lore point of view, this new version of Edric is a bigger deal: It’s really the first time we’ll get to see how this Dune cinematic universe interprets the concept of Guild Navigators at all. The 1984 David Lynch film gave us a “Third Stage Guild Navigator” in pretty much the very first scene, while the 2003 Children of Dune miniseries on the Sci-Fi Channel fully depicted Edric as a kind of mutated human with fins, hanging out in a tank.
The sleeker, more ominous Edric in Dune 3 feels in keeping with the overall design from production designer Patrice Vermette on Villeneuve’s films, and the opaque face covering is a callback to Guild Representatives who were hanging out in Dune: Part One when Duke Leto accepted the call to become the steward of Arrakis in the first place.
But one question remains: Will Villeneuve dare to show us Edric under that visor? Or will the Guild Navigators of Dune 3 remain forever hidden in their floating tombs? By the end of this year, we’ll know for sure.
